Thursday, May 10, 2012

Given how our President, Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III tends to copy his US counterpart President Barrack Obama in a lot of things such as his campaign centered around tapping the youth vote, winning through popularity and his supposed savvy for social media and new communication channels, it would be interesting to see just how far PNoy will go to copy President Obama.

“I’ve stood on the side of broader equality I hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient,” the president said. “But I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said.

So way to go President Obama! Sure, he could have done this a lot earlier in the term and words can seem cheap considering how he's dragged his feet with a lot of key LGBT issues, but that's in the past. What's more important is the fact that he has finally done something that no other sitting US President has ever done by making such a strong statement of public support for gay marriage. And that's something worth celebrate.